Ultimatum Begins!

[Brainiac 8]

Whatever. The EIC can't shoot down every pitch he gets without coming off like a fascist and/or a-hole. There's not a single comic book company on Earth that doesn't have any crappy titles or bad ideas. Blaming the EIC for every single thing in a comic you don't like is silly.

Have you ever managed over something? Of course it's silly to blame the manager/boss for everything that goes wrong in a company, but the hard truth is that they represent said company. In doing that, when something goes sour, and you approved it, as the companies representative, it is your fault.

Think of it this way. I have run banking branches in the past. If a teller came up to me asking to approve a 5000 dollar check without a hold, on a new acct, I would then have to decide if that's a wise thing to do. If I approve this action, and the check comes back bad and costs the bank money and reputation, then I am the one that deals with the backlash.

Joe Q similarly shares responsibility for any decisions he makes that end up being poor ones.

 

[hippie_hunter]

In the last interview I read about Ultimatum, this is basically the point of the story. There won't be any other Ultimate books other than USM and Ultimates, which is getting Mark Millar back on it after Ultimatum.

Loeb will still be writing the Ultimates post-Ultimatum. Millar will be writing Ultimate Avengers.

Appearantly, the remainder of the other teams will do their own thing and cameo in the other books if the writers want them to. How much do you wanna bet that Wolverine will end up on the Ultimates.

I thought that the remainder of the Ultimate X-Men and Fantastic Four will be in Millar's Ultimate Avengers.

 

[AlteredEgo]

Loeb will still be writing the Ultimates post-Ultimatum. Millar will be writing Ultimate Avengers.


I thought that the remainder of the Ultimate X-Men and Fantastic Four will be in Millar's Ultimate Avengers.

...excuse the noob question, but whats the difference going to be? arent the ultimates pretty much the ultimate universe's avengers?

 

[hippie_hunter]

...excuse the noob question, but whats the difference going to be? arent the ultimates pretty much the ultimate universe's avengers?

Ultimates 4 will be by Jeph Loeb and Frank Cho. It will focus on the Ultimates in the post-Ultimatum Ultimate Marvel Universe. In other words this title is going to suck hard core.

Ultimate Avengers will be by Mark Millar and various artists. It will be written in six issue arcs as an ongoing event book for the Ultimate Marvel universe. Despite having Avengers in the title, it really has nothing at all to do with the Avengers but instead will deal overall with the characters of the Ultimate Marvel Universe: the Ultimates Black, Ultimate Punisher, Ultimate Blade, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, the Ultimates, Ultimate Nick Fury, an African-American Ultimate Hulk, etc. It will be the tentpole title for the Ultimate Universe.

 

[kguillou]

Why in God's name hasn't marvel fired Loeb already? His track record for the past few years has been atrocious, his books have been getting horrible reviews and the fans dont like him, what's keepin marvel from kickin this dude out? His wolverine arc: sucked hard, Fallen son: sucked hard, Hulk: sucks hard, ultimates 3: sucked incredibly hard...heck the last decent thing he wrote was for DC not marvel.

 

[Steve Rogers]

I predict that I will not read it because I don't really give a s*** about the Ultimate universe.

Seconded.

I actually didn't realize people still cared about the Ultimate U. I'm kinda hoping Ultimatum will destroy everyone and everything in it and books about it will cease to be published.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Why in God's name hasn't marvel fired Loeb already? His track record for the past few years has been atrocious, his books have been getting horrible reviews and the fans dont like him, what's keepin marvel from kickin this dude out? His wolverine arc: sucked hard, Fallen son: sucked hard, Hulk: sucks hard, ultimates 3: sucked incredibly hard...heck the last decent thing he wrote was for DC not marvel.

1. Loeb's books sell incredibly well. Wolverine: Mega Seller. Fallen Son: Mega Seller. Hulk: Ultra-Mega Seller. Ultimates 3: Mega Seller.

2. Loeb's Wolverine arc started off with great promise. It's a shame that it ended horribly and had that stupid canine thing. And some of the Fallen Son issues were pretty good. Everything else he has given though has sucked big time though.

 

[prince_dylan]

Ultimatum #1 doesn't suck.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Ultimates 4 will be by Jeph Loeb and Frank Cho. It will focus on the Ultimates in the post-Ultimatum Ultimate Marvel Universe. In other words this title is going to suck hard core.

Ultimate Avengers will be by Mark Millar and various artists. It will be written in six issue arcs as an ongoing event book for the Ultimate Marvel universe. Despite having Avengers in the title, it really has nothing at all to do with the Avengers but instead will deal overall with the characters of the Ultimate Marvel Universe: the Ultimates Black, Ultimate Punisher, Ultimate Blade, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, the Ultimates, Ultimate Nick Fury, an African-American Ultimate Hulk, etc. It will be the tentpole title for the Ultimate Universe.

"The Ultimates Black." I wonder if they'll eventually adopt harsher methods and become the Command or the Executives or something.

 

[Ion Kenshin]

I dont understand the hate for the Ultimate Universe i mean its not like it affecting the 616 universe in anyway and if you don't like it don't read it. A majority of the stories are very good and entertaining.

 

[kguillou]

So you really, honestly enjoyed Ultimates 3? The problem with the Ultimate universe is simply marvel isnt putting any effort into making it good anymore. Now that the 616 universe is as good as ever, Marvel has no reason to put any effort into the ultimate universe, and that dip in quality is blatently apparent, Ultimates 3, Ultimate X-men, Ultimate FF4 have all sucked real bad lately. Ultimate spiderman is the only good title holding everything together.

 

[Ion Kenshin]

thats why i said 'most' not all i stopped ultmates 3 after issue 1 i pick up ult x-men which i dont think is completely terrible and ult spidey which i dont think i ever stopped enjoying (however i truly disliked the wolverine/spidey freaky friday thing they did...that was kinda pointless)

 

[TheCorpulent1]

At first, a lot of people started hating Ultimate comics because they were just a rehash of the 616 comics and the talent would be better spent on actual 616 comics instead of Ultimate stuff. Then Bendis and Millar started writing 616 comics, and a lot of people hated Ultimate comics because they were the breeding ground for such terrible writers.

 

[samurai black]

Ultimatum #1 doesn't suck.

Short, but true. I doesn't suck. I'm actually glad to see Magneto's power being used properly. I think the one thing they've been consistent on in the Ult U is power levels. The story so far is just about the devastation. I'm curious to see

Spoiler

if Johnny is really dead, which i doubt. and what dooom will do now that his enitre country is dead

. And although i think Mags is pretty powerful, I don't see him overcoming the combined might of the Ult U heroes.... I'd think Doom and Prof X would be enough.

 

[Sawyer]

1. Loeb's books sell incredibly well. Wolverine: Mega Seller. Fallen Son: Mega Seller. Hulk: Ultra-Mega Seller. Ultimates 3: Mega Seller.

2. Loeb's Wolverine arc started off with great promise. It's a shame that it ended horribly and had that stupid canine thing. And some of the Fallen Son issues were pretty good. Everything else he has given though has sucked big time though.

I think his comics have sucked in large part because he's been dividing his time between comics and tv for the past, what, 7-8 years? I'm hoping that now that he is off Heroes, he'll decide to do comics full-time for awhile and perhaps put out better overall stories.

 

[Sawyer]

I dont understand the hate for the Ultimate Universe i mean its not like it affecting the 616 universe in anyway and if you don't like it don't read it. A majority of the stories are very good and entertaining.

Definately. IMO, Ultimate Spider-Man has been nothing short of great since issue 1. Ulitimate X-Men was good when Millar and Bendis were writing, but afterwards it was pretty forgettable stuff. The Ultimates by Millar and Hitch is just freakin amazing, plain and simple. Ultimates 3 was...meh, to say the least. But thats kind of to be expected. You follow up Millar with Loeb and Hitch with Maduriera (sp?), its going to be a tough adjustment. And Loeb went too superheroey, whereas Millar's Ultimates was different. Ultimate Fantastic Four was okay for the first few arcs, but tanked afterward. I'm definately looking forward to seeing how Millar's Ultimate Avengers turns out.

But, yeah, its very easy. If you dont like the Ultimate books, dont read them and move on. It's not like you need to read their books to know whats happening in the regular Marvel universe. Dont read them and get over it.

 

[kguillou]

What i dont understand is Loeb has stated on many occasions that he has worked closely with Millar and Bendis with Ultimates and Ultimatum and i find it hard to believe that they allowed Loeb to get away with the characterizations that he does with their characters. Millar did such beautiful work with hawkeye and thor and Loeb just up and threw them down the sh** hole. If Loeb at least wrote people i character i swear his work would be 10x better, no matter how crappy the actual plot is.

 

[samurai black]

What i dont understand is Loeb has stated on many occasions that he has worked closely with Millar and Bendis with Ultimates and Ultimatum and i find it hard to believe that they allowed Loeb to get away with the characterizations that he does with their characters. Millar did such beautiful work with hawkeye and thor and Loeb just up and threw them down the sh** hole. If Loeb at least wrote people i character i swear his work would be 10x better, no matter how crappy the actual plot is.

Agreed, if there is one huge stain from Ults 3, it's the characerization of Hawkeye. Personally, I think it was overkill to eliminate the man's ENITRE family, but heh thats Millar for ya. But then to turn him into this emo Punisher with googles is lame. He was GREAT as a covert black ops assassin with uncanny ability to turn anything into a weapon. He was a strategist and team leader. He was more military than superhero.
And that's the main problem with Loeb's characterizations. He's made the Ultimates into a "superhero action team" and the book into action book. It's like taking a documentary and turning it into a big budget action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

 

[kguillou]

^^Couldnt have said it any better man. The Ultimate universe was supposed to be more "realistic" anyway.

 

[K.B.]

I actually enjoyed this and thought it was a pretty decent first issue and its really refreashing to see the old Loeb back after the horrible Ultimates 3 mess.

 

[samurai black]

About the deaths(?) No one's been confirmed except

Spoiler

Dazzler

... I mean yeah

Spoiler

Prof X said that Kurt and Hank were gone, but he could've teleported away

And it doesn't make any sense for

Spoiler

Johnny Storm to be dead, but i can see his dad biting it.

. I know that the purpose of this is to cull the flock, but if they're gonna leave folks left to create stories, he was one of the few characters who appear in multiple Ult books.

 

[Mr. Green]

Have you ever managed over something? Of course it's silly to blame the manager/boss for everything that goes wrong in a company...

I agree completely.

 

[GyLocke]

I've been thinking. At least part of the point of ULTIMATE MARVEL is to tell stories you couldn't tell in 616. This is exactly that. Heroes dying in a huge "final battle". Awesome.

 

[farmernudie]

Yeh, the whole point of the ULTIMATE Universe is that anythinig can happen and anyone could be anyone...you can write anyone anyway and do things you could never do with the ACTUAL characters in the marvel universe continuity.

So, i think at this point, it is good to start over and reboot things in Ultimate land, though i am against that in mainstream comics. After so long, Wolverine and everyone starts resembling normal wolverine too much. they all do.

The Ultimate line is a place for great creativity.

I mean, even with spidey, no reason to keep Aunt May alive...why not start over and have it be her that dies and Uncle Ben who lived, for instance, explore that.

Fantastic four doesn't have to be sue, johnny, thing and reed. OR maybe they got totally different powers in the space accident. Who knows.

Sure, each has its own continuity now, and i've enjoyed alot of it, but i do feel it is time to punch the restart button and give us a new ultimate line and history from the beginning. Something fresh.

 

[SUPER MARVELMAN]

I hoping if Johnny really dies that Pete become the new member of the FF, and since the mutants aren't really any different than superhumans, that the X-Men become part of the Ultimates.